Jan 24, 2013

Mitsubishi Heavy Seeks 10% of Offshore Wind Market

(Corrects seventh paragraph to say offshore wind tests in
U.K. will take place onshore. Adds offshore tests will be in
Japan. Story moved Jan. 24.)

Jan. 24 (Bloomberg) — Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.
plans to capture a 10 percent share of the global offshore wind
power market by 2017 using an as yet unproven technology that
will boost generation efficiency and lower costs.

The company, which has manufacturing businesses in ships,
aircraft and nuclear plants, will be entering a market dominated
by Siemens AG of Germany and Denmark’s Vestas Wind Systems A/S.
The two have about 80 percent of the world’s offshore wind
market, while Mitsubishi Heavy has zero, according to the
company.

Mitsubishi Heavy this month started testing a wind
generation system using an hydraulic drive train, instead of
mechanical gears. It aims for a 10 percent or more share of the
global offshore market by 2016 or 2017, Masahide Umaya, head of
offshore wind development, told reporters today in Tokyo.

Hydraulic drive trains “eliminate the need for mechanical
gearboxes, which will result in smaller and lighter nacelles,”
or the car-sized units that house the gears, electronics and
other machinery, said Justin Wu, lead wind analyst for Bloomberg
New Energy Finance.

“They will also allow the turbine to capture more energy
at lower wind speeds, which could dramatically improve its
efficiency,” he said. “However, the technology remains
unproven and without an operational track record, they will not
be deployed in projects any time soon until investors can see
that they actually work as claimed.”

The test operation of a 1.5 megawatt wind tower began at a
dockyard in Yokohama city, Kanagawa prefecture.

Mitsubishi Heavy is developing a 7 megawatt offshore system
that will be tested onshore in the U.K. this year, according to
a statement. The company said it will run sea tests of the model
offshore of Japan’s Fukushima prefecture in 2014 and aims to
mass-produce a commercial model in 2015.

The hydraulic drive train is based on technology developed
by U.K.-based Artemis Intelligent Power, a company Mitsubishi
Heavy bought in 2010.

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